Means for indicating the position of alpha connecter switch



May 19, 1931. M. scHLElcHER ET AL l,805,999

MEANS FOR INDICATNG THE POSITION OF' A CONNECTER SWITCH i May 19, 1931- -MQ scHLElcHER E- r AL 1,805,999

MEANS FORINDICATING THE POSITION OF A CONNECTER SWITCH Filed NOV. 16, 1927 .2 Sheets-Sheet 2 M 3: @E g8 n/vEN/Tc R s /7A NFRED 5on5 :amare 20 position in the Patented May 19, 1931 4UNITI-:D STATES PATENT yortica i@ IAZNTFRED SCHLEICEER, OF BERLIN-CHARLOTTENBURG, LEO BRANDENBURG-EB F IBERLIN-HALENSEE, G-ItflBJlW-ANY, ASBIGNORB T0 SIEMENS HALSK'E AKTIEN- GESELLSCHAFT, OF ASIEMENSS'JLAIJL, NEAR BERLIN,

GEBILANY GERMANY, A CORPORATION vO'B MEANS FOB INDIGATING THE POSITION OF A CONNECTER SWITCH Application tiled November 16, 1927, Serial No. 233,545, and in Germany Earch 22, 1927.

generally provide'dwhich indicate at the control point the position of the various switches and the like.

It may happen that the oil switch of a line in which there is a short circuit, will be closed fromthe control room. The excessive current relay or some other line protection relay provided for the purpose, may then become operative and open the oil switch before the indicator device had time to indicate its final control room. In such cases the only thing that can be seen in the control room is that the oil switch failed to obey the switching in operation. Repetitions of the above operation are liable to lead to a dangerous overheating of the oil switch and of other yimportant parts. In order to avoid this, drops or aps which are released di- -rectly by the line protection relays could be arranged in the control room. n 'the case so "of large installations, this means however a large number of signalling devices and signal wires-a drawback which is remedied by the present invention. A

' The invention starts with the idea that the that the oil switch was closed Aif not at least to such an extent that the line received energy. according to the invention operation of a line protection relay is a sure sign For that reason,

'the device, indicating the position of the line switch whichmay be released by a line protection relay, can be operated not only by the same but also yby the line protection relay. This makes it certain that the notification of the switching in process and of the automatic In or-l tacts corresponding to each other.

end any desired devices are provided which switching oi reaches the control room with out it being necessary to provide separate indicator devices and signal wires; The invention 1s of special importance for remote control installations in which the oil switches lo have to be ,operated from a great distance by means of a limited number of control and return notification lines.

4In the accompanying drawings Figs. 1 and 2 are diagrams 1llustrating examples of the 55 invention.

. In the diagrammatic illustrations switch devices arranged in a secondary room N, are to be operatedyfrom a main point or room H,

said rooms being connected together by distance lines 13 and 14. The line 13 connects together the centres of rotation of two contact arms 15, 16 which travel over contact discs 17 and 18 in such a manner that they successively touch simultaneously,

To that 'of examplemerely the control device or an oil lsvvite ,to the spindle 1 of which is ke ed two conthe armature-lever 2. When the oil switc is to be operated, a control switch 19 in the main room H is moved against one of its two contacts 20 and 21. The control switch 19 is connected by a wire 22 to the contact 23 of the disc 17 which corresponds to the contact 24 90 on the disc 18. If the oil switch is to be switched in for instance, the contact lever 19 is set against thecontact 20. A current will then pass from the positive pole of the source of current 25 through the wires 26\and 27, 8

contact 20, control switch 19, wire 22, contact 23, contact arm 15, distant line 13, contact arm 16, contact 24 through the winding 29 of a polarized relay and the wires 30 and 14,

back to the zero point o the `source of cur- 0 position shown in the drawing, the positive rent 25. relay will accordingly receive a posltive current impulse; consequently the contact blade 8 of the said relay will be moved against its contact 31. The contact blade .8 is connected to the neutral or zero conductor 10 of a bat# tery 9 through various windings which will be described further on. As soon as contact blade 8 touches the contact 31, an electromagnet 3 will receive a current impulse from the positive wire 11 of the battery and will pull the armature lever 2 in opposition to the action of the spring 4, into the position shown. As soon as the contact arms 15 and 16 have left the contacts 23 and 24, the contact blade 8 returns to its zero position, and current is cut oli' from the electromagnet- 3. The armature lever 2`however remains in its adjusted position, as its projection 6 engages with a locking lever 5. If the oil switch is to be switched out again, the control switch 19 is moved into engagement with its second contact 21 which is connected by the wires 28 and 33 to the negative pole of the source of current 25. Under such conditions when the contact arms 15 and 16 -again engage their contacts 23 and 24, the winding 29 of the polarized relay will receive a negative current impulse. rlhe contact blade 8 will accordingly be shifted into engagement with the contact 32 from which a wire 34 leads to the electromagnet 7, 'and the latter will be ener# gized and will pull the locking pawl 5 out of its locking position, and thus permit the spring 4 to pull the armature lever 2 back into the switched out position.

To the armature lever 2 a switch 35 is connected by a rod 63, so that when the armature lever 2 is in the switching in position, the switch lever` will engage with its contact 36, and when in the switching out position, with a second contact 37. In the switching in pole of the source of current 9 is connected through the wires 11'and 38, contact 36,

switch lever 35 and the wire 39, to one contactv k41 of the contact disc 18, which contact 41 corresponds to the contact of the contact' disc 17. As soonas the two contact arms have reached these contacts, a connection will be established through the two contact arms and the distant line 13, with a polarized relay 42 which controls an indicator device 43, arranged to indicate to the attendant whether the oil switch in the secondary roomv isin the4 switched in or out position. The circuit passing through the polarized relay 42 is completed through the wire 64 and the distant ine 14. If, contraryA to what is shown in the drawing, the oil switch is not in the switched in, but in the switched out position, the switch 35, as indicated by dotted lines in the drawing, will be in engagement .with a contact 37 which is connected through a switch 44 and a contact 45 with the negative pole of the The winding 29 of the polarized source of current 9. will thus receive a negative current-impulse and will bring the indicator device 43 into the position which indicates the switched out posltion.

If the contact arms 1'5 and 16 do not rotate too slowly, the current impulses which are sent through the sin le contacts of this contact disc, are relative y short. Itis however desirable for movements of relatively large extent such as the switching in of an oil switch, to have available a somewhat lon er time. For that reason, the polarized re ay 29 is further provided with a hold on coil 46, so that as soon as the contact blade 8 engages with the contact 31 or the contact 32, the zero point of the source of current 9 will be connected through the wires 10 and 30 to said hold on coil 46. From the latter the connection leads through the heating coil 47 of a bimetallic spring 48 and a swltch 49 to the contact blade 8. The hold on coil 46 receives current, namely from the ositivepole of the source of current when the contact blade 8 lengages the contact 3l, and from the negative pole of the source of current when it engages the contact 32. The hold on coil holds the contact blade in one or the other osition until the bimetallic sprin is heate by the heating action of the win g 47 to such an extent that it bends and opens the switch 49. Only then will the contact blade 8 return to the zero position, and the magnet 3, or the release magnet 7, become dead.

rlhe heavy current line is indicated by one of its phases 50 which includes a switch 71 connected with and controlled by the armature lever 2. The current transformer 51 feeds the excessive current relay 52. As soon as excessive current appears in the line, for instance owing to cessive current relay 52 will attract its armature 53 and close a contact 54 which is electrically connected to a magnet winding 55. From the latter, the wire 56 leads to the release magnet 7, so that the latter will under the above conditions be energized and will open the oil switch.

At the same time the magnet winding will be excited and will indicate to the main room if the oil switch was switched on a short circuit, even though it was thrown out again by the excessive current relay so quickly that the'switch 35 either had not reached the con# The polarized relay 42,.

a short circuit, the ex' trollever 19 is turned over, the switching in electromagnet 3 will receive current as soon as the contact arms reach the contacts 23 and 24, and will pull the armature lever 2 into the position shown. Let it be further' assumed that at the same moment the excessive current relay 52 also becomes operative owing to a short circuit in the line 50, and operates the locking lever 5, so that the armature lever 2 will at once return to the switched out position as soon as current has been cut oli again from the magnet 3. When the contact arms l5 and 16 reach the indicator contacts 40 and 41, the lever will under such conditions be already in engagement with the contact 37. At this stage however this contact is not connec-ted to the negative pole of the source of current 9, but to the positive pole; this is due to the fact that the magnet winding 55 has also received current through the contact 54 of the excessive current magnet 52 and has brought the switch 44 against the contact 57 which is connected to the positive pole. To the centre of rotation of the switch 44 is moreover connected a hold on coil 58 from which a wire leads to the switch 59 and through the heating coil 60 of a bimetallic spring 61, to

the negative pole of the source of current 9C The hold on coil 58 keeps the switch 44 in adjusted position until the arms 15 and 16 have reached the indicator contacts 40 and 41. At that moment, the indicator device 43 receives through the contact 57 of the switch 44, a positive current impulse, that is to say Vthat direction of current which brings the indicator device into the switch closing position. This will show in the main room, in a reliable manner, that the coil switch had switched in the line 50. As soon however as the bimetallic rod has become heated and bent to such an extent that it opens the switch 59, the current will be cut off from the hold on coil 58, and

the switch 44 will return to its position of rest on the contact 45. lAt the next revolution of the contact arms 15 and 16, the indicator device 43 will therefore again receive a negative currentimpulse, so that an attendant in the main room will see that the oil switch was immediately released again. In order to prevent the hold on coil from holding the armature lever 2 too long by means of the electromagnet 3, it may be advisable to carry its hold on circuit through to be closed by the contact lever 53 of the excessive current magnet 52, and to immediately open the hold on circuit in case of an excessive current. 4

Examples of the arrangement are shown in Figs. 1 and 2 of the drawings in which the contacts 72 are connected respectively with the hold on coil 46 and the wire 3() which leads to the zero or neutral conductor 10 connected with the battery 9.

In the construction illustrated, the change? over switch 44 is held fast for a given length contacts 72 arranged` of time in the change-over position by a hold on coill 58. The time period durin which the coil 58 is active must be calculate so that it shall be sufiicient to operate the indicator device 43 in a reliable manner.l Instead of employing a retardation device such as the above which works for a givenperiod of time independently of the other processes, the switch 44 could also be left in the change over position until the contact arms reachthe indicator contacts 4() and 41. lForinstancc, the switch44 could be brought back to the position of rest shown in the drawings, by the vindicator current impulse produced, or also mechanically, by the contact arms 16. In such case, as shown in Fig. 2, the contact 37 may be connected with a relay -which is also connected with the switch 44 and serves to return the latter to its normal position when the arms 15 and 16 engage the indicator contacts 40 and 41.

What we claim as our invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent is 1. In a system for indicating the open and closed positions of a switch, the combination of an electric circuit controlled by the switch, an indicating device, electromagnetic means for variably operating the indicating device, means controlled by the switch in accordance with the open and closed position thereof for controlling the operation of the operating means to cause the indicating device to indi cate the then position of the switch, an overload relay associated with the electric circuit controlled by the switch, a switching means, means controlled by the overload relay for operating the -switching means, means controlled by the switching means for rendering the indicating device operating means nonresponsive to the switch controlled means and to operate the indicator operating means to cause the indicatorv to indicate incorrectly that the switch is closed, and retarded operating means for restoring the switching means controlled by the overload relay to normal position and thereby restore the indicating device operating means to the control o the switch operated means to indicate the then 'position of-the switch.

2. In a system for indicating the open and closed. positions of a switch, the combination o an electric circuit` controlled by the switch, an indicating device Aresponsive to changes in the direction of current, electromagnetic means for operating the indicating device to indicate the open and closed positions of said switch, an auxiliary switch controlled by saidv rst switch, an electric circuit for said electromagnetic means in which the current vdirection 'depends upon the position of said auxiliary switch, an overload relay for pro tecting the electric circuit controlled by the irst switch, a switchingmeans, means controlled by the-overload relay for Operating the switching means, means controlled by the switching means for rendering the indicating device operating means non-responsive to the means controlled by the first switch and to operate the indicator operating means to in- 5 dlcate incorrectly that the rst switch is closed, and retarded operating means for restoring the switching means controlled by the overload relay-to normal position and thereby .restore the indicating device operating 10 means to the control ofthe means for operating the rst switch to indicate the then position of the first switch. "In testimony whereof we ax our signatures. y MANFRED'SCHLEECHER. LEO BRANDENBURGER. 

